“We’ve lost control of our personal data,” said Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web on its 28th anniversary earlier this year.

Everytime you are online, via a laptop, computer, or smartphone, you are under commercial surveillance. Your digital data including the content of your emails, the websites you browse, and the purchases you have made, together with metadata (data which includes to whom, when, and where your communications are sent) is monitored and collected, including via tracking cookies and other mechanisms. This sensitive information is then sold on and used to target commercial advertising or political messaging at you, and can be used by governments too.

“We’ve lost control of our personal data,” said Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web on its 28th anniversary earlier this year.

Everytime you are online, via a laptop, computer, or smartphone, you are under commercial surveillance. Your digital data including the content of your emails, the websites you browse, and the purchases you have made, together with metadata (data which includes to whom, when, and where your communications are sent) is monitored and collected, including via tracking cookies and other mechanisms. This sensitive information is then sold on and used to target commercial advertising or political messaging at you, and can be used by governments too.